Debswana appoints new MD
Albert
Milton the new boss
Debswana
Diamond Company today announced that Managing Director Mr Balisi Bonyongo will
retire from the business with effect from 30 November 2018, following 26 years
of dedicated service to the organisation. The Shareholders of Debswana have
appointed Mr Albert Milton, currently General Manager of Jwaneng Mine, to take
over as the Company’s Managing Director with effect from 1 December 2018.
The
Shareholders have requested Balisi to stay on for three months as a consultant
to ensure a smooth leadership transition. Balisi was appointed as Managing
Director on 1 January 2014 and his leadership has seen Debswana record
unprecedented performance across a number of business areas, including safety,
operational performance and strategic development.
During
Balisi’s tenure, the business has experienced a marked improvement in overall
company Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) from 0.96 to 0.2. He led
the High Performance Organisation 2018 strategy to success, notably delivering
the multi-billion dollar Cut 8 project safely and on time. Balisi also
progressed Debswana’s major capital projects, including the advancement of Cut
9 from feasibility to almost execution stage and Cut 3 from concept to
pre-feasibility stage.
He
also oversaw the progression of Letlhakane underground study as well as the
transformation of Letlhakane Mine to a tailings plant based operation. Albert’s
career with Debswana spans more than 25 years, during which he has gained
extensive diamond and coal mining experience at both operational and strategic
level. He holds of a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Mining Engineering
degree from Camborne School of Mines in England, and has worked at Orapa,
Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines, Jwaneng Mine, Venetia Mine and Morupule Coal
Mine, where he held various management positions.
Albert
was appointed as General Manager for Jwaneng Mine in 2013. Prior to this, he
was the General Manager of Morupule Coal Mine (MCM) for five years. Whilst at
MCM, he led the expansion of the mine from a one million to a 3.2 million tonne
per annum operation in order to meet the energy demands of the nation.
Among
his many achievements at Jwaneng Mine, he oversaw the safe and timely delivery
of the multi-billion dollar Cut 8 project, which started producing ore to plant
in 2016 and achieved bottleneck in 2018 as planned. Cut 8 was the first major
contract mining operation undertaken in Botswana involving multi-national
entities in partnership with local contractors, and achieved a TRIFR of zero in
2017 while at peak production.
Bruce
Cleaver, CEO of De Beers Group and Chairman of Debswana, said: “I would like to
say a huge thank you to Balisi for his exemplary leadership of Debswana over
the years. Both of Debswana’s shareholders – the nation of Botswana and De
Beers Group – have benefitted from his excellent stewardship of the business
and it has gone from strength to strength. Balisi has not only developed the
operations, but also the people of Debswana, leaving a strong legacy behind
him.
“I
am pleased to say that Debswana will continue to benefit from that leadership
legacy as Albert will be taking all his many years of outstanding experience in
the organisation to lead Debswana in its next chapter. There are very exciting
times ahead for Debswana with a huge amount of opportunities on the horizon and
I believe Albert is the ideal candidate to take the business forward and
maximise its potential.”
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